It seems that I Dream Of Jeannie unlike other shows of the era seemed to showcase minority actors..was this progressiveness on the part of the producers, actors and directors? were they trying to make a statement?...lots of speaking parts and background scenes..if anyone has any intelligent feedback or background info I'd appreciate it thanks
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I think NBC was just ahead of the curve in terms of opening television to minority actors. "Jeannie"'s network also gave us Roscoe Lee Browne in "That Was The Week That Was", along with beautiful funny girls Chelsea Brown and Teresa Graves in "Rowan & Martin's Laugh*In". Bill Cosby hit pay dirt twice with "I Spy" and "The Bill Cosby Show" during that era, and the Diahann Carroll broke new ground with her role in the fondly remembered "Julia", all on NBC.
shareDon't forget that NBC also aired the original Star Trek, with it's diverse cast and famous first interracial kiss.
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Perhaps to some extent we have lost sight of the fact that (LSD) can be very, very helpful in our society if used properly.
Sen. Robert Kennedy, 1966
NBC actually was ahead of the curve trying to include people of all shades and stations. A very good network.
share<<<NBC actually was ahead of the curve trying to include people of all shades and stations. A very good network.
well, during that time, NBC was promoting "color tv"
I was going to say that this show comes off as racist---it makes up stuff off the top of its head about the middle east.
shareI was going to say that this show comes off as racist---it makes up stuff off the top of its head about the middle east.
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Gee. you should have said it. I know it would make you feel better to say it, as the grrrl you are. Everything is racist and sexist; why, if it wasn't, things wouldn't be so gratifying for you..
..sigh
So you expect complete accuracy in a show about a fucking genie that lives in a bottle?
shareRacist? Middle-eastern people, including Muslims, are Caucasian.
shareBewitched also had one episode focused on a minority group when they had a black co worker of Darrin's and his wife and child appeared and Tabitha & the black girl wanted to be sisters and they end up both being spotted. It was truly a unique episode that talked about tolerance and was actually written by a 5th grade class and used for the show. OTher than that episode I dont recall ever seeing a black actor on that show.
shareIsabelle Sanford ("Weezy") was on an episode of "Bewitched".
shareForgive me, but I only remember Sammy Davis Jr guesting on the show. What other black people were on IDOJ. Except maybe one or two in the background at a party or a meeting.
Not only was there Isabel Sanford, but also the story where Tabitha had a friend who was black, also her parents. Clara dated an Asian man, and Sam and Darrin were a mixed marriage. There was also a famous baseball player who had a cameo It was Hank Aaron or I believe, but I could be wrong.
As much as I love IDoJ and enjoy Bewitched, neither could be considered a role model of ethnic diversity.
Looking at it now, that Christmas episode with Tabitha's best friend and her parents -- the father who is supposed to be a fellow employee at McMahon & Tate -- comes off as patronising and cringe-inducing. Had the show's writers at least led up to this episode by actually mentioning these people prior to this episode and not disposing of them as one-shot characters, it might have stood the test of time, like Greg Morris' appearance on "The Dick Van Dyke Show" does.
Overall, I think IDoJ outranks Bewitched in terms of at least showing that people of colour actually exist in the everyday, work-a-day world.
BTW, it wasn't Hank Aaron, but Willie Mays who did that cameo.
I'm confused. If Sammy Davis and one or two other black men in the background at Tony's work were shown. Who never even hhad speaking parts. How is that out ranking Bewitched in showing people of colr? At least on Bewitched they were allowed to talk.
shareWell, let's see, McMahon & Tate is a Madison Avenue advertising agency; most of the business restaurant/bar meetings would supposedly be occurring in Manhattan; and the Stephens live somewhere in Westchester (Morning Glory Circle) or Duchess Counties (Paterson, NY).
My stepfather was an account executive in a Madison Avenue advertising agency in the 1960s/1970s; he was also black. Surely McMahon & Tate would have had some people of colour working there; even if we only saw them briefly as mail clerks or secretaries. Again, with the restaurant/bar scenes, there's no faces of colour dining out, or IIRC even working as waitstaff. I don't think we even see a PoC as a passerby in a street scene: this was 1960s Manhattan after all.
As much as I love Isabel Sanford, do you really want to count her role as cheeky maid (and likely former _slave_) "Aunt Jenny" in the post-Civil War Deep South as a marker for Bewitched's enlightened portrayal of PoC? That ep aired in 1968 during the fifth season, and "Sisters at Heart" in 1970. "The Greatest Entertainer in the World" aired in 1967, during IDoJ's second season.
As I said above, neither series could be considered as standard-bearers for showing ethnic diversity, but at least IDoJ acknowledged PoC's existence in the military and at NASA, even if their roles were largely "under fives".
This is not intended to be a game of "Count the PoC" brinkmanship, where we all get out our DVDs and tally-up the numbers. As the perennial number three network of that time, ABC would make some tough (and in hindsight _wrong_) decisions. Their market share was considerably smaller than CBS and NBC; many of their affiliates were on UHF channels (vs VHF for CBS and NBC); they couldn't afford to offend advertisers or have an affiliate drop what was one of their most successful shows. So, many of their series from that time don't show much in the way of ethnic diversity. Of the "Big Three", it was NBC that was willing to be a bit more daring in their programming.
You're not making any sense to me. The point of the post is who showed more people of color and that was Bewitched Hands down. Isabel Sanford played a maid not a slave, because she mentioned getting a raise. Slaves didn't get rasies. Also Sam went back in time. That's the way it was back then.
Willie Mayes, and the black couple with the little girl whose father worked for Mcman and Tate. I'm sure if I paid more attention, I would see more black actors, because Elizabeth Montgomery was very big on civil rights. That's why there were so many shows about predjudice.
If you read the post, you'd note that I didn't say Aunt Jenny was a slave, but that it was likely she'd _been_ a slave. "Samantha Goes South" was set in 1868 -- three years after the end of the Civil War.
Willie Mays had a cameo; the speaking he did was as an "under five" (a person who has under five lines of dialogue). The episode he was in had nothing to do with him; he was simply a guest at Endora's party -- and IIRC the only witch/warlock of colour we ever meet. And except for Michael Ansara's Blue Djinn, we don't meet any genies of colour either.
Elizabeth Montgomery, herself, may have been an outspoken advocate of Civil Rights, but the episodes you're referencing could be considered, at best, allegorical. The prejudices behind the witches vs mortal conflict used as a stand-in for real-life racial issues of the time, without the thorny problem of actually showing or discussing "race".
You keep referencing, "Sisters at Heart", as some sort of bright spot in Bewitched's canon. It's not. The little girl (Tabitha's best friend), her father (who works for McMahon & Tate) and her mother (the parents being friends of Darrin and Samantha) are one-shot characters; they exist for that episode only, and are quickly disposed of. Even allowing for Columbia's notorious cheapness in not wanting to pay for more actors than needed, the writers could have thrown in a mention of Lisa, Keith and Dorothy leading up to that episode and following it.
I think the problem with our discussion is that we're referencing this post from two different points of view. You're counting eps wherein a PoC has segments of dialogue and some active participation in the actual plot, which leaves you with "Samantha Goes South" and "Sisters at Heart" for Bewitched -- two episodes out of 252 -- and "The Greatest Entertainer in the World" for IDoJ -- one episode out of 139. I'm coming at it from the perspective of "are PoC better represented in Bewitched or IDoJ, based on how often we see them on screen"?
I think we'll just have to agree to disagree.
Ok, I think we can settle this with your answer to this question. How many black actors had a speaking part of any kind on Jeannie?
Bewitched had Isable sanford, Willie Mays and the couple and their daughter. that makes Five. How many did Jeannie have?
Off the top of my head, Michael Ansara (Syrian-American actor) in at least three episodes; Sammy Davis, Jr. and three of his muscians; African-American character actor Vince Howard in two episodes as two different characters (and to save you time, Vince also appeared in one episode of Bewitched as a museum guard); an African-American boy (Geroge Spell) to whom Jeannie gives a trumpet in exchange for a piano; Chinese spies Richard Loo, James Hong and Linda Ho.
And congrats to you for turning this into a game of "Count the PoC".
Just for the recored. When it is said "People of color" it does not refer to anyone, but people that are black. So, everyone else does not count. Bewitched had many Jewish, asian, and other actors that were on the show.
shareEven using your definition, that leaves IDoJ with six (seven if you count Vince Howard as having two different roles) out of 139 episodes (4.3% of eps), vs Bewitched with six (I added in Vince) out of 252 episodes (2.4% of eps).
These are hardly impressive numbers for either show.
BTW, you might want to consider revising your definition of "person of colour"; it's about fifty years out-of-date.
Huh, I never noticed.
shareI was reading a book on American television some years ago:
President John F. Kennedy made a statement that challenged network television to highlight more ethnic diversity. He said something to the affect that if the networks didn't positively showcase the talent, intelligence, contributions, and humanity of non caucasians on a regular basis, he would have the FCC heavily scrutinize them come license renewal time.
President Nixon basically reversed this "edict", when he addressed the networks when he took office.
For me, much of the dignity of minorities' portrayal on American TV especially backslid in the era of "realistic" sitcoms.
"Dyn-o-mite!"
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What is the title of that book? I'd like to check it out
Boston and Philly love to slander us, but they don't have as many fans as us
I'll have to see if I still have the book. We have hundreds and may have resold it. I hadn't read it since the early 1990s. If I can find the book or an online reference to it, I'll post it here today or tomorrow.
NBC was the first American tv network to take Kennedy's threat on their ethical "standards" seriously.
I know this is an old thread, but I just thought of something regarding "ethnic diversity" - I LOVE Barbara Eden, but don't you think a blond genie sounds a bit strange considering she is supposed to be originally from Iran or Iraq? In the episodes where she is made up to be her own sister (a ripoff of the Cousin Serena character from Bewitched) she looks a bit more Middle Eastern/Arabic/Persian?
Nobody could have played Jeannie but Barbara Eden, however!!
The Monkees also had a little ethnic diversity too. I also recall a 60's show I saw in reruns named "Please Don't Eat The Daisies" and "Gidget"and "That Girl" also had a few minority actors on it. Mainly they were extras.
shareIn the episodes where she is made up to be her own sister (a ripoff of the Cousin Serena character from Bewitched) she looks a bit more Middle Eastern/Arabic/Persian?
I might have an in-story explanation, but it's kinda out there, and based on one of 2 explanations the tv show gave to Jeannie's origins.
The first origin story said that she originally was human and had been cursed by the Blue Djinn into being a genie herself when she refused to marry him. We also heard from her that she was born in Pompeii in 64 B.C.
The second origin story (which was mostly hinted at) suggested that she had always been a genie, and came from a whole family of genies (kind of like how Sabrina the Teenage Witch came from a whole family of witches).
If we go with the human-turned-to-a-genie story, it's very possible that she had a mixed family living in ancient Roman times. It wasn't unheard of for Romans to import slaves from far away places, and northern Europe was one of them. It's very possible that Jeannie's family might have been descended from northern Europeans who had lived in the empire for at least two or three generations, and somehow maintained their light coloring. She might have also been descended from northern Greeks, because they tended to have lighter skin, eyes, and hair than most ancient Greeks.
I have no clue with the always-been-a-genie background. Maybe it was a form she took on through magic, maybe she had ancestry from Northern Europe or northern Greece. It's hard to say with genies in that show. They came in many colors, as we saw.
No there was not much ethnic diversity. The erroneous "diversity is strength" mantra started to gain steam in the 90's.
While we were not ethnically diverse when this show was filmed as we are now, we were able to send a man to the moon and back, able to build the Verrazano Bridge and Empire State Building in NY and the Hoover Dam in a relatively short time. It took 12 years to build a World Trade Center and during the negotiations there were some who--using the "diversity" argument--wanted a display in the museum about why the terrorists hated us.
I do not know any nation that thinks diversity is a strength: Canada (French vs English), France and England (native born vs Muslims) are a few examples.
A brave post. Glad I read to the end of the thread.
shareWhile we were not ethnically diverse when this show was filmed as we are now, we were able to send a man to the moon and back, able to build the Verrazano Bridge and Empire State Building in NY and the Hoover Dam in a relatively short time.
While we were not ethnically diverse when this show was filmed as we are now, we were able to send a man to the moon and back, able to build the Verrazano Bridge and Empire State Building in NY and the Hoover Dam in a relatively short time.
Are you Blutarsky from Animal House?
well I agree with him and I blew your theory out of the water.
Reading the paper can really be depressing. Mr. Dithers fired Dagwood again.